HSTY2602 - Tablet to iPad: A History of Information

Semester 1, 2012  |  Credit Points: 6

Coordinator: John Gagne
Phone: +61 2 9036 5248
Email: john.gagne@sydney.edu.au

Description

How has information technology shaped our past? This unit investigates the history of the Western world's technologies of literacy and organisation of knowledge. We start with ancient materials - clay, wax, skin, paper - and the organisation and circulation of information from antiquity to the Renaissance. How did pre-modern networks function? Who was the public? The author? We compare Western systems with those of China, the Islamic World, and the Americas, and conclude with the new challenges of the digital age.

Assessments

1x1500wd short essay (30%) and 1x2500wd research essay (50%) and 1x500wd short tutorial assignment (10%) and tutorial participation (10%)

Classes

2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week

Prerequisites

12 junior credit points of History, Ancient History or Asian Studies

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